Wanderlust

"I'm going on an adventure!" The words of Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit kept echoing in my head as I pedaled my bike closer to Burg this morning. 

Today was a particularly exciting day. A group of 5 of us headed out for our first trip of any real distance away from Friedensau. We went to a small town in the Harz mountains called Thale. It's a cute little village with a cathedral with a park around it and mountains behind. I also saw the biggest ropes course I have ever seen. It was quite a fantastic day that had many close encounters and many more adventures.

We rode into Burg around 9:30 to catch our train. We had some issues with one of the bikes so we were a little behind schedule. We got to the train a full five seconds before it started to leave. Now I could set my very heavy pack down and take a rest from the long ride we just did. In Magdeburg we had to switch trains to get to another line. Made that one by a skim too. One thing I have learned about German trains is that every single time we have ridden them thus far, they have been late, most of the time to our benefit and we cannot count on that happening much more. In Magdeburg there were Politzei everywhere. I hadn't seen so many in one place very often so I was curious as to why they were there. Then we got to talking about it on the train. They were there because today was election day in Germany and it was a preventative measure to keep less than peaceful demonstrations from erupting. We were on the train and on our way to Thale and our adventures there.

The weather was perfect for our climbing. We set up two hammocks and one route. At the end we had to tear down and I had noticed that you could climb off the back edge and hike back to the trail. I volunteered to be the one to climb up, tear down, and walk back. So, not being without my ego (and therefore less reasoning) I climbed the route with my 40lb. (aprox 18.2kg for the Europeans) backpack. It wasn't the worst idea I have ever had…it certainly was the best one either. It wasn't too bad until the top when I had to do two lay backs. My Sharma scream became a little better than in the past. Once I climbed over and was on my way down I realized the crux of the climb was before me. When I looked at how passable it was I misjudged the fact that what I was seeing was not a grassy slope, but instead a cliff covered in a carpet of moss. Since I have historically had bad experiences with mossy rocks I was not the most overjoyed person in the world. All the manliness I was feeling from the climb was running away into the forest like a rabbit in the sights of a .22 rifle in the hands of an over zealous kid. After making one turn that I wasn't excited about I finally found the route of most resistance. (If I wanted the path of least resistance I would have just jumped.) Once I got down I rearranged my pack as I waited for the rest of the group. We eventually met up and off we went. 

There was a bike race in Thale and therefore there were hoards of people there. With that and the fairly urgent need for a bathroom that didn't operate only by coins (of course the only kind we didn't have), we boarded the train where we had both free bathrooms and the promise of a new adventure in the next town: Quedlinburg. 

We had heard that it had a nice downtown area and was super old looking. It was really quite fantastic. Then we found food. Some of, if not the best pasta I have ever eaten was at Quedlinburg. I will be stopping there again for sure. If you ever find yourself in a small town in Germany that has a funny name starting with a Q, go to the place called Flying Pizza and get some of their pasta. It won't be a bad choice….unless you are allergic to cheese. We walked around the city until it got darker and we had killed enough time before the train home. 

Nope. We didn't kill enough time. Oh well, an empty train platform isn't the worst place to sit for ten minutes. We had fun just chilling. We eventually made it back to our bikes in Burg, and after meeting a nice guy on the train who was traveling to London to get his masters and try to start a band we headed off. I had almost forgotten that I had a pretty heavy pack on until the ride back. By now it is around 21:30 and we still had about an hour ride until Friedensau. I am rarely the one to be slowed by a little work put into an adventure, so I took the not so functioning bike and limped it back. I have ridden worse bikes before, however it has been a while since and I didn't have a 40lb pack on and it wasn't dark. So the adventure continues. It was a fixie and was meant for someone half the size of me. On the trip I was compared to the old woman on the bike in The Wizard of Oz with my heavy pack on and me leaning all the way forward on it, not from the weight of the pack but from the fact that it was a miniature bike.

We finally made it back and were really excited about the day we just had. All in all we loved it. From riding our bikes 18km (11.2miles) one way, to barely making trains, we had an epic time. The weather could not have been better and the company was top notch. I cannot wait for more times where we get to experience more and to get ahold of a little more of my wanderlust.

Pictures of Germany

These are repeats of Facebook pictures 

but I want to put them on here too.

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This is a bench on the walk to the water bridge in Magdeburg

The water bridge of magical powers in Magdeburg

                                                                                     German engineering. Need I say more?

The small town of Burg that we visit on occasion and 

where we rode our bikes from.

Bicycles, Old People and Rain

My German understanding has been increasing a lot. I now know a lot more about conjugations and more important words to use. 

I am not a huge fan of interviews. Never have liked them that much. As a person in my profession I should probably get used to them. This week I had the opportunity to take one step in being more comfortable with interviews. I had to interview someone in German. Granted these were all simple questions like "What is your name?" and "What are your hobbies? Where are you from…?" Etc. Needless to say I was reticent to be bounding out and asking someone I barely knew questions in a language that I am still not too confident in. But that is why I am here. To learn German. After the people I wanted to interview were not there I found some old people walking around and interviewed them. It turned out to mostly be them interviewing me and it was pretty fun. They were nice people and even though we had difficulties understanding each other some times, we had a good talk. It was the opening salvo to the incessant barrage of learning that I will have the privilege to experience.

Today I had a bit of a cultural experience. Me and several other friends traveled via bus and then train to Magdeburg to purchase my new ride, a older, refurbished tour bicycle that I bought for 80 Euro. On my trip I also realized how useless American money is in Europe… long story short (well not really a long story, but still, Reader's Digest version) it's pretty useless. After we bought our bikes, we boarded the train back to Burg where we disembarked to ride back to Friedensau; a 15km ride…in the rain. But I am adventurous and have an abundance of optimism and no amount of rain can dampen my spirits. Besides, its not like it was pouring. We rode back to school chatting most of the way. Europe is really good to cyclists. This weekend we have plans to go down to the Harz Mountains and go climbing. Hopefully the weather will hold.

Germany: Week 1.

The First Week in Germany.

My first week in Germany is now coming to a close and to say that I have learned something would be a monumental understatement. Every night I go to bed sure that when I wake up I will find that my brain has declared mutiny and ran away from my skull. 

My trip to Germany was as uneventful as staying in three airports could be. When I was in Denver about to leave for Reykjavik, Iceland, we were informed that my plane had been delayed. No big deal, I was supposed to be in Iceland for a while anyways so it didn't matter. Then we saw that my flight from Iceland to Denmark was changed to a later time. This was mildly concerning because my time in Denmark was now severely reduced. I would have enough time to deplane and hopefully grab supper before my next, and final, leg of the trip to Germany. I ended up sitting a lot in Iceland where there were exactly four Americans in the whole airport. (It was early morning so no one was there, and yes, I did have that much time.) I did make all my connections; in Denmark I ran through the airport looking for everything I needed to find before I left. I didn't have time to decide on what local cuisine I would try so I went to the Starbucks in the airport. Running through the Copenhagen airport reminded me of one of those movies where a person is being chased and they are inundated with signs and they have to choose the right way. There seemed to be thousands of signs and I had to scan through them to find the one, usually way in the back or in an obscure place, that told me where I needed to go.

I made it to Berlin then to Friedensau without a huge issue. I did have one problem where I couldn't find my ride, but they found me so I didn't have to worry. By this time it was getting late (Berlin time) and I was tired from traveling. After the van left the city of Berlin I quickly and easily fell asleep.

I awoke some time later with a start. Was I still on the plane? Where was I? I had no idea, it was dark and all I knew was that I was somewhere in Germany on a van going to Friedensau. It took me a while to gather my thoughts, I wasn't sure if I had caught the correct ride for a minute or if I was even in Germany. Then I saw a sign for Magdeburg. Ok I am in Germany I thought. Then I looked at the driver. Yep, he was the guy holding the Friedensau sign. Ok…now I remember. Then it hit me. I am in Germany about to go to school for a whole year. I don't remember if I was cognizant enough to smile at that point or if I was just inwardly really excited. The part I had been stressing the most about going to Germany was now over.

What seemed like minutes later I arrived at Friedensau. In the pitch black I couldn't see how beautiful the campus was. But more on the campus later. After talking with some of the fellow ACA students and two professors I fell into my bed happy to be sleeping. In the morning I felt completely rested and had no signs of jet lag. "I guess I did it right" I thought. Bless the man who invented coffee. I was adjusted well, but not as much as I thought. Nothing me and a cup of coffee couldn't handle. I got a tour of the place and quickly got oriented. Not much happened that day, I got moved in, hung out, and circumnavigated the campus. All I had to do was not go to sleep until the night. I'm a film student. We spend a lot of time trying not to go to sleep. The only difference is that I wasn't sitting in a chair with my eyes glued to a computer monitor looking at the same four seconds of video repeat in front of me.

Some time later that week, I think it was Friday, we went into town to buy things. For those of you who haven't been to Germany, its really pretty. At least the parts that I have seen. The village/town that is closest to me is called Burg. Look it up on Google Earth or GoogleMaps. It's nice. I didn't know a lot of German when we went shopping, but I knew a lot more than I did before I went to Germany. It's convenient how that works out. I was hoping I didn't have to know very many words to go shopping. As it turns out, I didn't. I don't think I spoke three words to the cashier. As I repeatedly found out, I look like a German. People think I am a German until I open my mouth. Then they quickly find out I am very much American. Soon, soon… Until I can speak German like the Germans I will probably not say much while I am away from the safety of being understood. Speaking of being understood. I haven't heard this much Spanish being spoken in forever. That's right, Spanish. Not Spain, Spanish but Mexico and South America Spanish. We have some people from South and Central America that work for the school. It's oddly comforting to hear Spanish. It reminds me of home and that's not at all a horrible thing when you are more than five-thousand miles away from it. Since I am on the topic of home, I heard about the floods there and my heart goes out to those effected and I am praying for you all.

Some adventures and misadventures of this trip so far include: thinking that I got my wallet stolen in Copenhagen when it was in my hand the whole time, (I was tired okay. The color of my hair has nothing to do with it.) Getting locked into my own room by Michael, forgetting that everything here is in the metric system (that's a misadventure when in the weight room. 100kg is a lot more than 100lbs.) But some adventures are learning German, finding an old World War 2 bunker, meeting new and wonderful people, playing football (soccer) with Europeans (I did 100 times better than I thought I would), and watching Lord of the Rings in German. And yes, that movie is just as long in German…holy cow Peter Jackson, just saying, you made some long movies.

Now that my first week has passed I know that I will have many more adventures, and probably a lot of misadventures, I will learn a whole lot more, and probably take terabytes of pictures and videos. Yes I know, I need to post them…but they will be up soon I promise.